NEWS12 WESTCHESTER: A bomb squad used specialized equipment to help the NYPD execute a search warrant. (Jan. 9, 2012)

A Rockland County correction officer may be linked to the case of a Greenwich Village couple accused of having bomb-making materials in their home, Newsday has learned.

On Wednesday, New York City Police Department and Rockland County cops seized a weapons cache from the Orangeburg condominium of Daniel Whittaker, who was suspended two years ago from his job as a Rockland County correction...

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A Rockland County correction officer may be linked to the case of a Greenwich Village couple accused of having bomb-making materials in their home, Newsday has learned.

On Wednesday, New York City Police Department and Rockland County cops seized a weapons cache from the Orangeburg condominium of Daniel Whittaker, who was suspended two years ago from his job as a Rockland County correction officer for an unspecified personnel matter, Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco said.

Whittaker, 33, is a "subject" in the NYPD's investigation of Aaron Greene and Morgan Gliedman, a New York City couple who allegedly had bomb-making materials in their West Village apartment, Falco said.

Greene and Whittaker are friends who grew up together in Rockland County, Falco added.

Greene and Gliedman stand accused of having 7 grams of HMTD, a highly explosive white powder used in making bombs, as well as papers titled "The Terrorist Encyclopedia" and "Deadly Homemade Weapons."

"What was interesting to us is that we took a sawed-off shotgun out of Greene's apartment, and that sawed-off shotgun is on a document of guns that Whittaker owns," Browne said.

Whittaker was not charged with a crime after the Rockland County bomb squad and NYPD officers executed a search warrant around 6 a.m. on his home at 5 Blue Hill Commons on Western Highway at Highview Avenue.

"When [our investigators] asked [Greene] if he had any more weapons, he said he got rid of them," Browne said. "He said he'd given them to a friend in law enforcement upstate who he refused to identify further. Armed with that bit of information, our intelligence division identified Whittaker."

Investigators are checking handwritten correspondence between Greene and Whittaker for more clues, Browne said.

"That's something we're looking at," Browne said. "To see if it sheds any light to what may have motivated Greene for acquiring the explosives and weapons."

'WE WERE SCARED'

Alba Bhavsar, 39, who lives above Whittaker's apartment, said the officers were forced to break down the door.

Gliedman, 27, and Greene, 31, were arrested after the NYPD searched the couple's apartment Dec. 29 following a tip about the suspicious stash. Among the items seized: a sawed-off shotgun, chemicals used to make HMTD and a replica of a grenade launcher and ammunition.

The couple, who police say were heroin abusers, met in rehab.

Gliedman is the daughter of a prominent physician and was nine months pregnant at the time of her arrest. She gave birth while she was in custody and since has been released on $150,000 bond and conditions that she enter a drug rehab program and wear an electronic monitoring device. Greene is being held without bail.

There's an indication that Gliedman is of less concern to authorities than Greene, who remains remanded on Rikers Island.

"It's unknown at this point how [Whittaker] may or may not figure into our ongoing investigation," Browne said. "There's a connection there. What the significance of that nexis is, we don't know yet."